Vigeland Park Oslo

Back to Oslo and a visit to the amazing Vigeland Park, it is the world`s largest sculpture park made by  a single artist. The artist Gustav Vigeland was born in Southern Norway in 1869, the park was completed between the years 1939 and 1949.

Once we had had a bit to eat and Alessio got some time to play at the great play area for kids, we began our exploration of the statues. The park itself and its layout is beautiful, it did remind me of some of the parks in Paris. Going over the bridge there are loads of statues and we all had fun choosing the one we liked the best. For me it was the one with the man and the four babies hanging on him and it looks like he is trying to get them off him.

We then walked up the steps to the very amazing Monolith on the highest point in the park, it is 17.3m high and has 121 figures. It took 3 stonemasons 14 years to carve the Monolith.

The last photo shows the impressive view from the top looking down at the gardens and the fountain of the park. There was still lots more to see but by then we decided to head back into the centre and to our hotel.

Photo of the Week - Fancy a Fish!

Saturday evening in Istanbul we were walking on the Galata bridge, you can walk on the lower part which has lots of restaurants. People trying to beckon you into their place as supposed the next one, it was also very busy with people just hanging out.

One of the most prominent things we saw were the many, many fisherman going about their business. I have never seem so many standing side by side. It was just not on this bridge but on the other one we walked over. I did see some of the fisherman catching some fish, this must be a common activity on the bridges.

Turkish Goodies on Sale!

Selling IDs!

I am just back from a long weekend in Istanbul, my first time there and in Turkey too. Going to Istanbul has been a long time coming and finally I made it happen.

How to explain what this city is like, is a bit difficult! For starters it is a very busy place, the metros were always full to brimming point. The streets were full of people selling all kinds of wares and people begging for money too. Walking around restaurant areas was always interesting as they all tried to get you to eat in there place.

Talking about eating there were always stalls where you could get a bite to eat. From watermelon, corn on the cob, chestnuts, pretzels to freshly made sandwiches and all costing next to nothing. So the orange juice in the photos would have only costed less than 1ch and the watermelon was under 2.50ch for a big portion.

In the last photo the guy is making a sweet of some kind, it really was very interesting to watch how he did it.

Oslo Words

And another month is nearly over, this year is passing by so fast! Time for another post and it is from Oslo. The five days we spent in Oslo, we got to see quite a lot of places and my favorite place was the Opera house. That will be another post though.

The last two photos are from the Norwegian Folk Museum, it was located in a lovely area. It was a very interesting museum and Alessio had a good time.

This week I will be going to Istanbul for the first time and am very excited about it. In fact I cannot wait!!

Filming in Olso

During our last evening in Oslo after finishing our evening meal we decided to walk a little before catching the tram back to our hotel. As we were walking along we could lots of smoke and of course thought that something was on fire, but lo and behold it was not fire but some kind of filming. Of course we were all excited and went to watch what was going on.

We then started to wonder if it was for a film, tv or an advert. It looks like it is set possibly 30s or 40s, what we saw was around four cars driving and extras walking along the street. One of the extras looked like he was wearing Jewish clothes and then we thought it might have something to do with something set during WW1 or 2.

Well anyway it was all very exciting to see this!

Animals Galore!

Wild cat

So cute!! Red Panda

Hello!!

Right I am off to eat my dinner!

Over the last few months I have visited Zurich zoo and Langenberg Animal Park, on all these occasions it has been lots of fun!

The bear is in the animal park and we were lucky to have seen him twice, normally he is a bit shy. The second visit he decided to go swimming much to the delight of the onlookers! He is definitely my favorite animal in this park.

The wild cat is always very tricky to find but we did manage to spot him both times, hidden among the greenery in his area.

The foxes were all out and very busy running around and exploring there field, to be honest I think that this was the first time I have ever seen foxes. And then one found something to eat!

The snow leopard was fast asleep we were there, but is was great to see one anyway!